I've been thinking about a new kind of sports experience.
Not a museum.
Not a Hall of Fame.
Not a theme park.
Something that combines the emotion of sports with artificial intelligence, immersive technology and a digital experience that extends far beyond a physical destination.
Imagine walking into a sports experience that already knows the teams you follow, the players you grew up watching and the games you still remember.
You step into the batter's box and see what a 95-mph fastball looks like coming toward you.
You become the manager with the game on the line.
You sit across from one of the legends of the sport and ask a question.
And when you leave, the experience doesn't end.
Your personal sports world goes with you.
I'd call it HOME.
An Experience Built Around You
Baseball is where I'd start.
But I wouldn't stop there.
The same idea could work for football, basketball, soccer, hockey, tennis and other sports—or ultimately bring several of them together under one roof.
At the center of HOME would be something I'd call your Sports Passport.
Before you arrive, HOME begins learning about you.
Your teams. Your favorite players. Where you grew up. The first game you attended. The athletes you idolized. The games you will never forget.
Your Sports Passport becomes your connection to HOME.
A 12-year-old Yankees fan would have one experience.
A 70-year-old Dodgers fan another.
A young softball player might have an entirely different one.
A grandparent and grandchild could experience the game together across generations.
No two visits would have to be exactly alike.
HOME wouldn't just know sports.
It would know what sports mean to you.
Have a Conversation With History
Now imagine sitting across from one of the legendary figures in sports.
And perhaps it begins by sitting down with the legends who are still with us—recording their stories, their memories and their perspectives in their own words.
With the appropriate rights and permissions, AI could then help transform those interviews, along with authorized broadcasts, books and archival material, into interactive experiences.
Imagine asking Sandy Koufax what was going through his mind as he took the mound for Game 7 of the 1965 World Series on two days' rest.
Or asking Joe Montana what he saw as he led the 49ers down the field in the final minutes of Super Bowl XXIII.
Or asking Billie Jean King what she was thinking as she walked onto the court to face Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes.
You wouldn't simply watch sports history.
You could have a conversation with it.
And there's something else important about that.
HOME could help capture sports history while the people who made it are still here to tell us about it.
There would be other ways to step inside the game.
You're the manager.
Bottom of the ninth. Runners on first and third. One out. Tie game.
What do you do?
Send the runner? Bring in another pitcher? Pitch around the hitter? Change the defensive alignment?
HOME could give you the situation, the statistics and the choices.
You make the call.
Then you see what actually happened and explore the strategy behind the decision.
For a few minutes, you're not watching the manager.
You are the manager.
Now See How You Measure Up
Sports are physical, so HOME should be, too.
Could you hit a Major League fastball?
Return a 120-mph tennis serve?
Catch a pass while a defender closes in?
Computer vision, ball tracking, biomechanics and AI could allow fans to test themselves in ways that once would have been available only to elite athletes.
Take your swings. Throw your pitches. Test your reaction time.
Then receive your own AI-generated scouting report.
Maybe it tells you that you have a pretty good swing.
Maybe it suggests you stick to your day job.
I'd want to try it either way.
HOME Could Be Everywhere
But here's where I think the idea becomes much bigger.
HOME shouldn't just be a place.
It could be a global digital sports platform with an extraordinary physical destination at its center.
You shouldn't have to travel to HOME to be part of it.
The digital HOME could extend the experience far beyond the physical destination, creating personalized ways for fans around the world to participate, compete, learn and connect.
Imagine leagues and teams creating HOME experiences for their own fans.
Imagine a kid in Tokyo competing against a kid in New York.
Or fans around the world entering the same interactive sports moment and making their own decisions.
Your Sports Passport travels with you.
Visit HOME and your digital identity shapes your physical experience.
Leave HOME and the relationship continues.
The physical destination might be where HOME lives.
But HOME could be everywhere.
There's Another Part of This Story
HOME isn't simply an idea I've been thinking about lately.
Years before generative AI became part of our everyday vocabulary, I was involved in developing an earlier version of HOME: The Baseball Experience.
The original idea was a 21st-century home for baseball built around storytelling, immersion, personalization and technology—a place designed to celebrate the game's past, present and future.
Looking through those plans today, I'm struck by how much of what we imagined has become more achievable.
We envisioned something called Legendary Encounters, where holographic technology would allow fans to encounter baseball legends, hear their stories and ask them questions.
We created a You Are There Theater, where a pivotal moment in a real game would suddenly freeze. Fans could explore what the pitcher, hitter, manager, umpire and others were thinking before discovering what actually happened.
We imagined visitors testing their hitting and pitching abilities against Major League players.
And we designed a mobile experience that knew your favorite team, helped personalize your visit and continued delivering stories and experiences as you moved through HOME.
We had many of the ideas.
What we didn't have was today's technology.
That's why I've started thinking seriously about HOME again.
The HOME We Can Build Now
The original HOME was primarily an attraction.
The HOME I'm imagining today could be a platform.
A physical destination.
A digital experience.
A personalized sports community.
And potentially a new way for leagues, teams and athletes to build deeper relationships with fans.
I've spent much of my professional life watching technology change the way we experience sports.
Newspapers gave way to websites.
Broadcast television expanded into cable and streaming.
Statistics became analytics.
Social media changed the relationship between athletes and fans.
Now AI is creating another enormous change.
But there's something about HOME I wouldn't want technology to change.
AI isn't the attraction. Sports is.
Technology should make the emotional connection stronger. It should allow us to experience the games, people and moments we care about in ways we couldn't before.
I think there's an opportunity here to create something we haven't seen before—bringing sports, entertainment, technology and digital media together around the fan.
And I'm interested in conversations with investors, leagues, teams, technology and media companies, developers and others who see the possibilities.
We originally called it HOME because that's what we wanted it to feel like for anyone who loved the game.
A place where you could reconnect with the teams, players and moments that made you a fan in the first place—and discover entirely new ways to experience them.
I still like the name.
The technology has changed dramatically since we first imagined HOME.
The reason for building it hasn't.
Maybe it's time to build HOME.
Thanks for reading!
Subscribe to The Appleman Playbook for more stories, insights, and conversations that go beyond the headlines.
See you next time.
Marc Appleman.
P.S.: I advise sports and media organizations on growth, partnerships, audience strategy, and what comes next. I’m also available for keynotes and executive workshops. Feel free to reach out!